Joseph Willibrord Mähler

Joseph Willibrord Mähler (10 June 1778 – 20 June 1860) was a German painter.[1] He was born in Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein, the son of Franz Josef Mähler and Anna Johanna, née Vacano. He first served an apprenticeship in Dresden with Anton Graff to become a painter and later on, he continued with his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Mähler then decided to start a civil career and he became an officer of the secret service Geheime Kabinettskanzlei (secret chancellery) in Vienna, while painting in his spare time.

Ludwig van Beethoven, 1804/05

Mähler was introduced to Ludwig van Beethoven by Beethoven's school day friend Stephan von Breuning in the winter 1803/04. He painted his first portrait of Beethoven, which shows three quarters of the composer's body in an Arcadian landscape, holding a lyre-guitar in his hand. (Today, the painting is located in the Beethoven Memorial, the Pasqualati House in Vienna.) In the 19th century, this illustration – one of just a few depictions of Beethoven when he was young – mainly became famous due to a lithograph by Josef Kriehuber.

Around 1815, Mähler produced a series of portraits showing contemporary Viennese composers. As written in the Allgemeine Musikzeitung (General music journal) in August 1815, "all of them distinguish themselves in a most creditable way through the effectual brush stroke, the descriptive resemblance and the distinctive expression of their soul". A half length portrait of Beethoven was part of the series. The painter created several versions of this portrait.[2][3] He died, aged 82, in Vienna.

See also
  • Beethoven (Mähler, 1804-05)

References
  1. Wacha: "Mähler, Joseph Willibrord". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Vol. 5, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1972, p. 404. (in German)
  2. "Mähler's Beethoven", lewis-clark.org
  3. "Portraits of Beethoven " Archived 2012-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, California State University, Dominguez Hills
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